“CAUSES FOR SHAME”

Southland Times, Issue 24834, 28 August 1942, Page 2

“CAUSES FOR SHAME”

Sir,—As one who has heard and often admired speeches by the Very Rev. Dean G. C. Cruickshank, of Dunedin, I was amazed to read in The Southland Times an extract from his speech at Invercargill on Wednesday evening. I trust that he has been reported correctly and I am not doing him an injustice. His wholesale condemnation of the practice of abortion and sale of contraceptives is quite understandable, but surely he realizes that these evils are, in a majority of cases, symptomatic of an economic system which will not allow the average man to rear, feed and clothe a family. It is only as a result of “economic disputes” that the position of the bulk of the people may be improved and the evils mentioned above, in part, mitigated. His sweeping statement that “New Zealand has bred the laziest men in the world” should not be taken calmly by the people who are working day and night to further the war effort, and is a I grave reflection on our splendid New 1 Zealand Division overseas. If the Dean desires support for his Crusade for Christian order let him publicly condemn our main “cause for shame”— “that we have allowed the natural order that consumption should control ■ production, and production should conI trol finance to be reversed.” The quotation is from a speech by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Temple. In conclusion, may I hope that any effort to erase the word “secular” from the Education Act will be opposed by any member of Parliament who may be urged to support its deletion. P. M.